Assuming neurons aren't able to tap into QM stuff because of decoherence, it seems odd that consciousness is performed with an irreversible computation whilst the universe uses a reversible computation.
- David -----Original Message----- From: Russell Standish [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, 13 November 2003 9:59 AM To: David Barrett-Lennard Subject: Re: Reversible computing I think the answer to your question is yes (assuming I understand you correctly). Information and probability are closely linked (through algorithmic information theory - AIT for those acronym lists). Schroedinger's equation is known to conserve probability (basically |\psi(t)| is a constant - usually set to 1 - under evolution by Schroedinger's equation (|.| here means Hilbert spoace norm, not absolute value)). This conservation of probability turns out to be equivalent to unitarity of the Hamiltonian operator, which guess what, means energy is conserved. Unitary evolution is a reversible computation, which is why quantum computations are reversible. Cheers David Barrett-Lennard wrote: > > I have been wondering whether there is something significant in the fact > that our laws of physics are mostly time symmetric, and we have a law of > conservation of mass/energy. Does this suggest that our universe is > associated with a reversible (and information preserving) computation? > > - David ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ---- A/Prof Russell Standish Director High Performance Computing Support Unit, Phone 9385 6967, 8308 3119 (mobile) UNSW SYDNEY 2052 Fax 9385 6965, 0425 253119 (") Australia [EMAIL PROTECTED] Room 2075, Red Centre http://parallel.hpc.unsw.edu.au/rks International prefix +612, Interstate prefix 02 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ----
